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Maria Varelas, PhD

Professor

Maria Varelas is professor of science education whose research focuses on classroom-based learning and teaching of science in urban schools that educate predominantly students of color in economically challenged neighborhoods.

She is also an Honors College Faculty Affiliate at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), with degrees in physics and education. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), other foundations, the State of Illinois, professional organizations, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, as she works with urban-school teachers to reform science education aiming at equity and social justice, and to explore possibilities and challenges that emerge in such efforts.

Prof. Varelas is widely published and recognized as a University of Illinois Scholar and Distinguished Researcher of the Year. She has been funded by multi-year and multi-collaborator NSF grants totaling over 9 million dollars, spanning integrated science-literacy enactments in elementary Chicago Public School classrooms, elementary and secondary science teacher preparation, development of science content courses for elementary education majors, and working with graduate students in science, mathematics, and engineering fields involved in K-12 classrooms. Dr. Varelas has held leadership positions in the field of science education that include: associate editor of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching; co-editor of the Learning section of Science Education; elected member of the Board of Directors of NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Teaching and Learning Through Research; Chair of NARST’s Research Committee; Higher Education editor of Spectrum–the official journal of the Illinois Science Teachers Association; consultant to the 2012 US Framework for K-12 Science Education; and member of NSF Committees of Visitors.

Education

1992 - Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, Science Education

1988 - M.S., University of Rochester, Education

1985 - Secondary School Physics Teacher Certification

1985 - B.S., University of Athens, Greece, Physics

Research & Teaching Interests

Maria Varelas engages in theoretical and empirical explorations of what it means to learn and teach science using primarily qualitative, interpretive approaches. She studies various interplays that are enacted in science classrooms, namely the interplay between developing theories and collecting and analyzing data, between the individual student and the larger classroom community, between the teacher and the learner, between affective, cognitive, and social dimensions of experience, between reading, writing, drawing, talking, and doing science, between an individual’s construction of meaning and the existing socio-cultural practice of science, between intellectual-thematic and social-organizational aspects of a classroom community, and between content learning and identity construction.

Since 1993, Dr. Varelas has been teaching in UIC’s elementary education programs and Curriculum Studies doctoral program, and has received 6 teaching awards of 3 different types. She is program co-coordinator and co-director of graduate studies of the new PhD program in mathematics and science education, and coordinator of the Masters program in science education.

Christodoulou, N., & Varelas, M. with Wenzel, S. (2009). Curricular orientations, experiences, and actions: Graduate students in science and mathematics fields work in urban high school classrooms. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 46(1), 1-26.

Varelas, M., & Pappas, C. C., with Rife, A. (2006). Exploring the role of intertextuality in concept construction: Urban second-graders make sense of evaporation, boiling, and condensation. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43(7), 637-666. (Joint lead authorship of the first two authors.)

Pappas, C. C., Varelas, M., Barry, A., & Rife, A. (2003). Dialogic inquiry around information texts: The role of intertextuality in constructing scientific understandings in urban primary classrooms. Linguistics and Education, 13(4), 435-482. (Joint lead authorship of the first two authors; see also version as invited book chapter below.)

1981-1985 - National Scholarship for Outstanding Performance, Department of Physics, University of Athens, Athens, Greece, awarded separately for university entrance examination and for each of the four student years

Professional Affiliations & Activities

Co-chair/Chair of the Research Committee of NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning Through Research (2012-2015)

Elected Member, Executive Board of NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning Through Research (2012-2015)

Guest Editor (with J. Settlage and F.M. Mensah) of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST) special issue"Explorations of the Structure-Agency Dialectic as a Tool for Framing Equity in Science Education" (2014-2015)

Associate Editor of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST) (2013-2014)

Co-Chair of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Early Career Research Award Selection Committee (2011-present)

Consultant to the National Research Council (NRC) project “Conceptual Framework to Guide the Development of Next Generation Standards for K-12 Science Education” (2010)

Member of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Early Career Research Award Selection Committee (2010-2011)

Member of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST) Award Selection Committee (2010-2011)

Member of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Committee of Visitors (COV) for REESE and DRK-12 programs (2009)

Member of the Advisory Board of the National Science Resources Center of the National Academies and the Smithsonian Institution, and Scientific & Educational Contributor to K-2 books for the Science and Technology Concepts (STC) curriculum, a research-based, inquiry-centered science program for students (2008-2010)

Member of the planning committee for the 2005 National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Regional Convention, Chicago, IL (2004-2005)

Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (1999-2002)

Member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Practitioner Research, National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) (2000-2008)

Co-Chair of the Science Work Group, Chicago Teacher Pipeline Project (CTPP), a four-university Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant from the U.S. Department of Education focusing on elementary school teacher preparation (2009-2014)

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